CLEARWATER - A prominent critic of Scientology who admitted
striking a church member was found not guilty of misdemeanor
battery Tuesday.

One of six jurors in the two-day trial said a variety of
factors led the panel to acquit Robert Minton.

The avowed Scientology foe used a protest sign to whack a
church security officer, leaving him sprawled on a sidewalk
with a small cut above his left eye.

"Nobody should hit anybody, but due to the circumstances, he
was pressured into it," said the juror, who asked not to be
identified.

Minton never disputed that he hit Richard Howd Jr. with the
edge of a cardboard and foam placard during a brief protest
outside the church's spiritual headquarters, the Fort Harrison
Hotel in Clearwater,. Defense attorneys maintained that Minton
acted in self-defense and that Howd was angling to be hit.

For two days, the defense attempted to portray the church as a
vengeful organization that investigates and harasses anyone who
dares to criticize it.

Howd's job, defense attorney Denis de Vlaming argued before the
jury, was to provoke Minton into striking him so the
millionaire New Hampshire retiree would be arrested and
convicted.

Asked if she feared church retribution for the verdict, the
juror responded: "That's why I don't want my name in the
paper." Other members of the four-woman, two-man panel declined
to comment.

Minton said the trial provided church critics an opportunity to
showcase the very practices they find objectionable. But he
said striking someone and getting arrested for it was not the
proper way to go about generating publicity for his cause.

"My intention was to push him away from me and get him out of
my face," he said in reference to the 10-minute confrontation
that preceded the act of violence.

"There was certainly no intention to hurt Richard Howd, and I'm
sorry that the metal clip that was on the sign cut him," Minton
said.

In a written response to the verdict, church spokesperson Pat
Jones said: "We're hopeful that ... this prosecution will at
least help to prevent further acts of violence against our
members."

Although four videotapes of the Halloween night incident show
Minton striking Howd, they also show that Howd anticipated
being struck and then played to the hilt the part of a wounded
victim, de Vlaming told jurors.

On the witness stand, Howd said he didn't wear his glasses that
night because the video camera he was operating had a tiny
"peep sight." But de Vlaming produced a photograph of Howd
filming a different demonstration using the same type of camera
while wearing his glasses. Howd took them off because he hoped
to be hit, the defense attorney said.

As he lay sprawled on a sidewalk after Minton struck him, Howd
could be seen on videotape peeking through one eye, de Vlaming
said. Then, when a policeman asked for identification, Howd
pulled something out of his pocket and handed it the officer
before resuming his horizontal pose, the lawyer told jurors.